3D printing lending a 'hand' in the world of prosthetics

TROY - A world of 3D printing and prosthetics is all coming together at the Tech Valley Center of Gravity in Troy.

"I applaud these guys. They’re working on finding a solution and I think that's awesome," explained Dan Frament, who owns Mud Daddy Flats in Troy.

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In 1983, Frament got his hand caught in a machine and lost most of his fingers.

"Picking up a toothbrush, brushing your hair, turning a doorknob, drinking from a water fountain, you drop your penny, pick it up with no fingers, you can't," noted Frament.

While he says he's learned to live with it, he wants younger people without the use of their hands to be able to pick up things.

That's where "Give Kids a Hand Powered by AT&T" comes in.

"Each one of these parts is 3D-printed and then we have to sit there and file and sand them so that all the pieces fit together properly," explained Noah Page, a student at Shaker High School. He is working on lots of different models.

"You can see, when you bend the wrist here, the hand will close," he pointed out, as he showed off one of the hands.

When NewsChannel 13 visited on Wednesday, they were measuring the prosthetic hands for different people.

"I’m here to go through the process, troubleshoot, find out what works and what doesn't and help them get better at a really fantastic idea," beamed Frament.

"Sometimes, I will go into a potential project that we're launching and I start to question whether or not they can handle what we're throwing at them and they always take it on," acknowledged Erika Iannotti with THINQubator

"It’s an awesome time to be alive, 'cause we can have all this amazing breakthrough technology that we're able to use to help people and change the world," noted Noah.

"I'm pretty adapted, so it will just be something fun. So hopefully, we can make it look really cool like a cyborg head or something I’d have more fun to play with," joked Frament.